by Rissa Brahm
*
And then that haze swallowed him up to sleep, his head falling back onto the pillow, a smile still on his perfect mouth. And his grip of her hand slipped, letting her hand go free.
“Goodbye, Zachary James.”
CHAPTER 50
Her last words to him tasted like bitter poison as she’d said them. But fate, for once, had let her off easy, relatively speaking. Zack, being such the fighter, and Isabel, having proved to be so weak-willed and unable to combat his charms, she had been sure that their end would be a horrendous, battle-torn one.
So if she had to choose, she couldn’t have imagined any better way to slip out of his life.
Ah, the illusion of choice.
Because it was absolutely not her damn choice, she fumed. There was a knot the size of a boulder in her throat, and the pounding of red-hot misery in her head was blinding. At the doorway, she glanced at Zack one more time, her last vision of him, and then flew down the hall, stopping just before the doublewide exit door to the waiting room.
There, with no one around, she threw herself against the wall for balance and then slid down, crumbling to the floor.
*
She realized the loss of an immense something accompanied by a great fear, like she was plummeting into darkness. It was familiar to her, similar to the out of control feeling the day Sebastian had left her alone in this hell called her life.
Fucking fate!
Furious, she frantically took out her cell phone from her bag. She scrolled through her photos, ignoring the cracked screen and her own splintered reflection it showed. She found what she was looking for.
Her home screen image, Sebastian.
Delete it, damn it. Forever.
And with just a tap of her finger, it was done. The photo trashed. The end. And with no images of Zack to replace it with, she was free of the pathetic reminder, the idea, the hope that she could find and hold love. Because she goddamn couldn’t! Not ever.
All she got to keep a hold of, tight and true, was her endless void, a void she hadn’t been prepared to add to, to deepen, in this lifetime. But here again, deeper it went. Endless plus infinity.
But as her tears began to collect, despite her best efforts, Zack’s face came to mind. And those sweet and sensual eyes of his, clear as the sea. She bit down on her bottom lip hard, pain-clearing hard, then surrendered her head back against the wall. With eyes closed softly to the world and tear drops now crashing to the sanitized floor, the only thing willing her next breath was that she at least knew Zack would go on. He’d live. That wonderful man would live the hell out of life. He’d be an amazing lover, partner, friend, and God, a father, to a lucky someone else, somewhere else, very far away from her.
CHAPTER 51
Over two days’ time, Isabel had gathered up enough courage to go into the Golden Rings office to collect her things. She went in early so she could avoid Lucinda and all of the staff, except for the receptionist.
When Isabel got to her private office, her desk was all just how she’d left it. She hadn’t been in for a while—not with her remote access and the bum rush of events over the last weeks—but still, God, she’d miss her desk. And the energy and bustle of the office, the clinching of clients, and even the unending hours of preparation. She’d miss her position, her purpose, having a hand in solidifying potential soul mates for life.
And Lucinda. She’d miss Lucinda most of all.
She sighed in surrender, then began to box up her belongings.
A photo of her and her favorite nieces, Celeste’s girls, was the only thing of significance. The rest, just stuff. And when she was done with clearing the surface and emptying the drawers, she stood back. And peeking out from under the keyboard on the now barren desk was an envelope with just her first name on it. In Lucinda’s handwriting.
*
She picked it up. The envelope’s contents were firm, rigid, but light. She wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible, but with the office empty and her curiosity piqued, she just had to take a quick look inside. She tore it open and pulled out her last paycheck and a handwritten letter wrapped around some photos.
I hated to let you go, Isabel, love, but I can’t risk the bad press. Nor can I start any bad precedents with the staff…but please know that I miss you already! You know, though, my interests aside, you shouldn’t be coordinating other people’s bonds of love anyhow…you should be coordinating your own, damn it! The photos say it all, and I am and will always be the expert! ~ Lucinda
Isabel pulled out the photos.
That damn photographer! The man had caught Isabel and Zack first in an eye lock at the rehearsal dinner, then Zack staring at her during the ceremony, and one shot at the party…of her only feet away from Zack, her eyes gazing up at his face. His handsome and truly kind face.
“If that’s not two people in love, I don’t know what is.” Lucinda stood in the doorway smiling softly at Isabel.
Awkward, thick vibes filled the room while her ex-boss’s comment registered, and was then disregarded. “Lucinda… Good morning.”
“What’s your plan now, dear?”
Isabel swallowed then sighed, fingering the check under the photos. “With this, I’ll invest in vacation rentals. Charlie said he’d throw me overflow during high season. The two condos on either side of me are vacant.”
Lucinda released a jagged breath, took one long stride toward Isabel, tapped the photos, then lifted Isabel’s chin to gain total attention. “I didn’t mean work, love.” Lucinda’s gaze narrowed. Inescapable. “You’d better make this whole thing worth it, Isabel Ruiz. If you’ve lost your position here and then let that man go, I’ll be really fucking pissed.”
Isabel sucked in her bottom lip and tried to smile with her eyes. “I know you don’t believe in our superstitions, Lucinda…but I’ve faced so much hell over the years. I can’t imagine going through it again. The car accident was my final warning sign. I just can’t take the risk. I can’t risk…him!”
Lucinda rolled her eyes. “I’ve run through four husbands, Isabel…does that mean I’m cursed? Wait, bad example.” Lucinda shook her head. “The fact is this…” The older woman paused, staring hard at Isabel, who shifted her stance preparing for a longer than usual speech. How funny—she’d be more than relieved and elated to receive a lecture from her mentor, especially now that she had no right to her. While the alternative cold shoulder of shame would have killed her.
“Life is a day-to-day pain in the ass, Isabel—cursed or not. It’s finding the small pleasures and sharing them with your loved ones, or better yet, your one true love, if you can find him. Most don’t. And you already know that I’m a hopeless romantic, a true believer in that one true love.”
Isabel narrowed her eyes at the woman.
“Okay, well, that may not necessarily apply to my life, but that’s my case in point! Following?”
“Yes, Lucinda.”
“Good, good. Now look, I would go get that delicious hunk of a man myself if I were the young, intelligent beauty you are. Hell, I would try to get him myself being the old, intelligent beauty I am…but he wouldn’t be interested. He’s quite obviously not interested in anyone but you, love,” she said, pointing at the photo from the wedding ceremony.
Isabel stared again at the pictures. Her mind wandered to the recent scenes of Amy and Darren during their first dance. Then her thoughts traveled farther off, to that old black and white of her grandparents, their loving gaze, a forever fixture in her head and heart. And then back to the photos in her hand. She couldn’t deny the look of adoration Zack was giving her—or her, him.
Lucinda, as usual, was right. Isabel and Zack were pretty damn magical together…on so many levels.
But could the affection they shared combat her curse? And, more than that, was her heart strong enough to place that bet? Especially when Fate was dealing the hand for the house, and everyone knows that no one ever beats the house.
CHAPTER 52
“Please, have my mother come in.”
Minutes later, Elaine entered, dark circles under her eyes, but a wide smile on her aged face. Before he could ask her anything, Dr. Acharya came in and immediately set to examining Zack.
The man took a closer look at how his head gash was healing. The doctor smiled and nodded, then bobbled his head. “Looks good. Phenomenal.” The doctor moved to grab his chart. “So, you’re leaving us today, but you need to take it really slow the next few weeks, very important. And I’ll see you back here for a follow up, which means of course, so sorry to say”—he winked—“you’re stuck here in paradise until then.”
Zack smiled. He hadn’t intended on leaving paradise, near-fatal accident or not.
“Oh, yes…I almost forgot,” the doctor went on, “The paramedics found this at the crash site about twenty feet from the vehicle, like it was ejected to safety…anyway, the nurses charged it up for you.” The man smiled and handed him a device.
It was Zack’s cellphone. He held it in his grasp with great care, as if it was his own pumping heart. He didn’t even hear the doctor’s next comment.
“Zack?” His mother interrupted his mental wanderings.
“Yeah, sorry.” He looked up from the phone.
“Zack, you just remember how lucky you were, and don’t take it for granted!” the doctor said.
He knew the man’s mini lecture was well meaning, and Zack smiled in appreciation. He was lucky, the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet. And he needed to talk to Isabel, to tell her that he understood now, that he accepted all of it, all of her! And that they were meant to be together, more than he’d ever realized. He came back from the brink for her and now needed to start his life with her.
“Yes doctor. Thank you for everything.”
The doctor shook Zack’s hand, then his mother’s and left the room.
Finally. “What happened to Isabel, Ma?” he asked, looking down again at his hand clutching the phone.
“I didn’t even see her leave, sweetheart. I don’t know. I’m sorry. Let’s just get you to the hotel and go from there, dear. I’m sure there is an explanation.”
Yeah, there was. And he’d have to prove her explanation wrong. He’d have to show Isabel that he was the cure to her curse, and she was the missing piece to his heart.
*
“I’ll go and sign the release papers, dear, and will be right back.”
He nodded to her, then refocused his attention on the phone in his hand.
He inhaled, pain taking firm hold of his middle, then he eased out a long breath. He powered the device on. The screen lit up. Unbelievable! He couldn’t believe the damn thing still worked.
The display now illuminated, a frozen screen of text messages stared up at Zack.
All from Isabel.
Wednesday, June 4th, 4:23 PM—the exact time he woke from his coma: Zack, where are you?
And scrolling up from there, one from Sunday, June 1, 7:31 AM—the time of his accident: Zack. I can’t fight it anymore…I want you, I want us. I guess we’ll just fight fate together.
His heart was flooded. Hot, pounding, and alive.
*
He dialed her number from his phone four times. No answer.
And he kept dialing as he was wheeled out of the unit and out into the bright Puerto Vallarta sunshine.
A limo was there to take him back to the hotel.
Antonio came around the vehicle. The man gave Zack a firm handshake. “So glad you’re okay, man. Anything at all I can do, bro, you just say the word.”
Zack nodded in thanks, looking up at Isabel’s brother with hope. “I appreciate it. Really do, man. And…I actually could use your help with something.”
“Anything, bro. Anything.”
CHAPTER 53
She put down the wedding professionals magazine—yes she was now an officially confessed masochist—and hunted for her robe.
On the third buzz of the doorbell she gave up her search and threw on some stretch pants and a comfy tee instead. The bell rang a fifth time.
“I’m coming, one second!”
She looked through her front door window, and a small flat digital screen had taken up her entire field of vision. Skewed by the bevels and colors of the stained glass, she could just make out what it was.
A smartphone with text bubbles.
“Isabel, I know from your texts what your decision about us is…or was! Please, let me in. The accident wasn’t a bad omen…it was just the opposite. Please just let me in.”
In an instant, her back was flat against the door, her breath quickened with indecision. She could get over him with time––if she just did not open the door.
But Lucinda’s words rang in her head, about how few people find their one true love. Let alone, for her, a second love!
Then she recalled other words, words of warning from her scared shitless mind…Isabel, you can’t have love, period! Not Zack, not anyone!
“Please, Isabel. We love each other, and I understand now! I get it, the curse…my luck…it’s…written, the universe’s plan! We’re supposed to be, Isabel!”
Damn it! Maybe she was meant to say goodbye the hard way. Fate had teased her to believe it had been with Zack drifting to sleep as she uttered the torturous words. But she guessed she was wrong. It seemed pure agony would be the way.
And opening the door wouldn’t mean she’d change her mind.
Or would it?
“No. Zack, I can’t open the door. You can talk to me from outside.” She spoke with sudden courage––or cowardice, depending on her ever-conflicted perspective.
“I understand you’re scared. So am I, but isn’t that life? We can do this…thing together, Isabel. I never feel as alive as I do when I’m with you! Do you understand that?”
Yes, she so did. But it didn’t matter.
And she just couldn’t handle a long-drawn-out thing here.
But maybe if she gave him a little token, some lingering words through the door, then he would go. Yes, let him take her sentiments with him at the very least. “Zack, I can’t deny…that I love you. So much, it burns. And I know you love me, but sometimes love just isn’t enough. The accident was the final warning. I love you too much to be with you, Zachary James. It’s all too much!”
“You’re scared to lose me, but here you are, pushing me away?”
“Pushing you away alive and breathing!”
“Look!” Zack held up a photo to the window now. It was too morphed to see the detail, but Isabel could make out a flattened car with the roof peeled back like a sardine can. “The doctor said I should be dead and unrecognizable. But here I am, walking, talking. And I would have been crushed if I hadn’t been leaning over to get my phone from the floor to see your text! Isn’t that a sign? Or the sign that my phone survived for me to know your answer, sent a millisecond before the wreck?”
“None of that matters. The accident was because of me in the first place!” Her hands raking through her hair in frustration.
“I can’t do this through a door!” And he vanished.
*
Isabel slid down the door, balled up in a daze, staring out at the bay through the back slider. Was he gone? Was that finally it?
She covered her face to block out the sun and to be ready for a downpour of tears, but it didn’t come. The numbness washed over her that quickly.
Crash!
A large rock shattered the slider, large glass shards flew across the floor.
Isabel scrambled to her feet, her pulse ricocheting through her body.
“There you are,” he said while clutching his sides, the motion used to break the glass must’ve been excruciating, especially after––Jesus!––having to scale her security fence! God, what the hell was he thinking? And for Chris
t’s sake, broken glass? Again?
CHAPTER 54
“Ay Dios Mio! Zack—shattered glass! This is so, so bad!” Enraged, she grabbed shoes and then a broom from a closet around a corner, all the while mumbling just loud enough for Zack to hear. “Can there be any more signs to make my damn point?”
“It’s okay, Isabel. I’ll pay for it, I have a guy, and…give me that broom!” he said crunching right through the glass to get to her. But the wall she put up with her palms, her glare, her steps backing away from him like he meant her harm, it all made him halt in his tracks right there in the middle of the glass-strewn floor. Crunching glass, just like the first time they’d met. Only, she had laughed then, while now she just looked terrified.
“No, Zack, it’s not okay at—” But she cut herself off, her eyes suddenly pinned on a fluttering monarch coming in through the glassless doorway. She stood there, jaw hanging, clutching the broom handle as if she needed it for balance.
Isabel’s eyes still following the erratic movement of the butterfly, completely captivated, he took a step toward her and took the broom, giving her his arm instead, despite the pain shooting through his torso. He moved her slowly with him a few steps so he could lean against the kitchen island, and then he spoke, despite her lack of attention, his tone purposely quiet as not to startle her. “I needed to talk to you face to face, Isabel. I’ll leave, but first I need to get these last words out.” He lifted his arm despite the agony, and turned her face toward his with his finger. “A comedy of errors,” he whispered.
“Excuse me?” Isabel said, finally focusing on him.
“A comedy of errors,” he repeated.
She inhaled through flaring nostrils, agitation radiating from her.
“Look, I woke up from the coma, and I saw things more clearly than I ever had before. I can’t wrap my brain around the rules of your curse, Isabel, but I believe you…and I know now that I am a lucky son of a bitch, always have been. And the luckiest thing to ever happen to me is you, Isabel!” He took a step closer to her, but she took a long step back. He processed her less than subtle message and moved a meter away from her, setting the broom against the wall by the open doorway.